Anthony Cumia Plays The Victim Over His Race-Baiting Tweets

In case you missed it Anthony Cumia, the “Anthony” of Sirius XM Radio’s Opie and Anthony radio show, was fired last week after a volley of race-baiting tweets. Last night, Cumia got a friendly platform on Red Eye to deny he’s a racist, complain about being penalized for "just speaking his mind" and emphatically state that he will never apologize.

I will say that Red Eye’s hosts, Greg Gutfeld and Andy Levy, asked legitimately challenging questions of Cumia. But I can’t help but wonder if his appearance wasn’t a try-out for a job at the Fox News Channel or Fox News Radio.

In any event, Gutfeld cherry-picked some of Cumia’s tweets, made after he was assaulted by a black woman in Times Square. Here’s just one for the flavor.

Cumia was not only unapologetic, he gave the impression he was the one owed an apology.

I was assaulted in Times Square… I was livid. Now, I defy anybody to be that angry, especially after an assault and come off reasonable. …I wanted to make a point and then boy, did I ever.

…People picked it apart. It wasn’t racist. I still say it’s not racist. …I was talking about people that instantly go to violence. There was no word.

…I was saying people that act like this and I addressed that there is a huge violence problem in the black community.

What Cumia didn’t get or didn’t care about is how his hostility and contempt for African Americans blared out of his tweets and even his comments here.

Even worse, Cumia tried to play the victim over his “mere commentary about violence in the black community”:

Look, let me tell you something. It’s been addressed by pastors, reverends, church groups. There’s marches, rallies, all kinds of things: “we must silence the violence,” “save the children,” “tell them not to act with violence.” You could go through the news clips and come up with tons of these.

…But the second I addressed it and said there is indeed a violence problem, I’m the bad guy that just said all blacks are violent. I didn’t say that… But there’s a problem.

…It’s dangerous to try and say anything and speak your mind, especially on things of race and sex. …We are our own Big Brother these days.

Gutfeld asked Cumia if Sirius offered him his job back if he apologized, would he?

Cumia replied:

I will never apologize for this. …I didn’t do anything wrong. …This is exactly who I am. I’m not even gonna deny it. I go off on tears like this. …It would be a phony, bogus apology because if it happened again, I’d do the same thing.

Actually, Ellen is pretty tolerant with opposing views. She does, however, intervene quickly to discourage sockpuppetry, a common practice among people with weak arguments. They seem to think that several posts under different names will be more convincing. Further, most of them don’t even use their own turds, the end result is boring, we react with snark and they turn violent. Same old same old.

@john Welch: as my brother says “owning a gun does not automatically give you an advantage because the prowler may also have one as well as the advantage of surprise”. Hard to imagine that he won’t be readier to shoot first.

The condescending tone is deliberate, because I consider your claim that a gun places one in control of one’s life is just plain silly: a childish illusion. The USA has the second highest rate of gun ownership in the world (after Somalia) AS WELL AS the highest rates of gun-related death and wounding. The only logical conclusion is that guns do not enhance security. Far from it.

It has always surprised me to see how so many otherwise intelligent people are so ready to believe and repeat the rhetoric of the NRA, i.e. of the very people who have a strong vested interest in selling the maximum number of guns. To mind mind, instead of viewing the NRA with legitimate suspicion, far too many people are buying into this idea that living in constant fear is commensurate with their self-image of the “land of the brave and the free”. When I was a child, a brave man was Gary Cooper in “High Noon”, not a fear-crazed person who sees danger everywhere.

Ellen, not everyone is going to agree with you. Don’t try and silence those who don’t by deleting their posts and leaving up the posts of the opinions you side with. People like you scare me. Don’t waste your time voicing an opinion if you want to restrict others from voicing theirs, you creep.-————————
Moderator: This commenter has been banned for repeatedly posting flaming attack posts. This is the least of them.

@john Welch: You take exception to my using the generic term “forces of order”. I find that to be just a tad silly since you understood perfectly what I meant.

In any case, I live in a country where law and order is a job for professionals, not an unregulated bunch of individuals living in constant fear. The “gotta protect myself” meme is – to my mind – a carry over from childhood games like cowboys and indians or cops and robbers.

Personally, John Welch, I think giving only some people a license to carry concealed weapons is both uncivilised (read that as un-American for a country that sees itself as a beacon of equality) and dangerous regardless of how carefully civilians may be vetted. Unlike you (perhaps), my idea is that only the forces of order should be allowed to carry weapons and that the lack of weaponry on the othr side will reduce the tendency to shoot first, etc.

No, Regular Joe, a slip of the tongue or lapsus is usually an indicator of what the person really and truly thinks. It therefore follows that giving into the occasional temptation to say terrible things is more revealing than you think.

I don’t care what race you are. If you attacked me on the street, I’d be livid. If I constrained myself from being violent back, the least I would do is verbally attack you and when I did, I’d be using everything in the arsenal. If you’re gay or black or of any minority group, you better believe I’d mention it in a negative light. You know, you can say terrible things and not actually, truly be a racist or a homophobe.

Ellen, you end your piece with “good riddance”… Why? Is because you don’t like the person… because you feel “offended” by his opinion? Or is it so that you can feel better about yourself for taking the moral high ground. I wonder if you have ever actually listened to the show, or read any of his previous tweets before this incident. I would bet good money that you have not, so how is that you can sit in judgement of something you cant possible understand. Whenever the word “racism” or “racist” is mentioned, all the self-righteous people start running in circles point fingers at anyone and everyone to defect the attention from themselves. It all kind of reminds me of the witch trials in Salem. Your neighbor could be your best friend, until someone suggests that they are are witch, and then its “burn them at that stake”. Just remember, mob mentality and hysteria have a way of getting out of control, and before you know it, YOU may be the one defending your reputation. Hopefully for you, cooler and more rational minds will come to your defense and not just write you off.

Probably had some sort of “don’t be a total idiot” clause in his contract. Also, lil Anthony made himself a liability to his employer with that little rant. Free market, dude. Nobody stopped you from waxing like a moron. You just have to realize that with freedom comes responsibility.

“made after he was allegedly assaulted by a black woman in Times Square.”

FTFY, Ellen.

The only “evidence” of any attack is Cumia’s pictures. However, the pictures conveniently omit anything Cumia may have done to instigate the woman’s actions. Cumia had no real reason to be taking pictures of anyone without permission, even in a place that’s usually as busy as Times Square. ESPECIALLY when you’re taking pictures of INDIVIDUALS. You get the person’s permission, either beforehand or afterwards. Cumia’s own tweets acknowledge that the woman did NOT want him taking her picture.

But that still leaves unanswered the question; Did Cumia do anything else that might have provoked the woman into “attacking” him?